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Origin of the iPhone
rambilly brings us a story from Wired about the origin and development of the iPhone. From the article:
"Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple's top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple's boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn't just buggy, it flat-out didn't work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, 'We don't have a product yet.' The effect was even more terrifying than one of Jobs' trademark tantrums. When the Apple chief screamed at his staff, it was scary but familiar. This time, his relative calm was unnerving. 'It was one of the few times at Apple when I got a chill,' says someone who was in the meeting."
Graphs showing iphone is indeed 'blowing up' competition
http://blogs.computerworld.com/canalys_figures_in_iphone_clear_winner_in_north_america/
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* Palm is dead everywhere but in the North America, where it is falling sharply.
* Symbian is huge everywhere besides North America, but obviously has the most to lose with the iPhone being released around the world next year. Don't expect Symbian to post these numbers on their website as they have in the past.
* Microsoft's mobile strategy is failing miserably. They don't crack 10% anywhere but in North America where they are behind RIM and iPhone and dropping.
* Blackberry, while strong in North America, has a much smaller global market share.
* Linux is big in China and Japan but insignificant elsewhere.
* The iPhone has grabbed 27% of the North American smartphone market. This is obviously on the sharp upturn.
* Apple is poised to be the number one US Smartphone vendor next year if trends keep up."
Excepting, of course, the robust OS, the user interface, the clean entire package, the quick and seamless merging of multimedia and communications services, the stability, the partnership with cell providers rather than slavery to...